Best quotes from MPs’ expenses saga – Telegraph

Shahid Malik: “I’m as straight as they come”When: May 15, hours before standing down as Justice Minister

Andrew Mackay: “When it (the housing arrangement) was drawn to my attention my first reaction was that the right thing to do was to resign my post, which I did very first thing today with David.”When: May 14, announcing that he was standing down as David Cameron’s aide

Hazel Blears: “I have heard absolutely the outrage and the anger that the public feel about what has been going on. I would never do anything to let down the people that I represent and serve and that is the most important thing for me. It isn’t just enough to claim within the law, that is why I have decided to send to the inland revenue a cheque. “When: May 12, after previously saying she had complied with the rules and done nothing wrong

Douglas Hogg: “I have never claimed for the moat, or for the piano tuning – the allegation that I did is incorrect. I never claimed for these and I never received any money.”When: May 13

Gordon Brown: “I want to apologise on behalf of politicians, on behalf of all parties, for what has happened.”When: May 11

David Cameron: “Politicians have done things that are unethical and wrong. I don’t care if they were within the rules – they were wrong”When: May 12

Michael Martin to Kate Hoey: “I just say to you it’s easy to say to the press, ‘This should not happen’. It’s a wee bit more difficult when you just don’t have to give quotes to the press and do nothing else. Some of us in this House have other responsibilities.”When: May 11 in the House of Commons during announcement of review

Lembit Opik: “I may have been within the rules. It’s equivocal. I asked them about it (claiming back a £40 court summons) and they said they would have to look into it. The one thing they (the Telegraph) have been trying to get me to pay back may not have been wrong.”He said he had written a cheque anyway “rather than waste the Fees Office’s time”.When: May 13

Peter Mandelson: “Perhaps we need not more people looking round more corners but the same people looking round more corners more thoroughly to avoid the small things detracting from the big things the Prime Minister is getting right.”When: May 9

John Maples, who declared the RAC club as his main home: “I believe that everything I have claimed on the ACA has been a properly incurred property-related expense and that I can produce receipts for almost everything.”When: May 13

Chris Huhne: “My aim on second home claims has always been to avoid controversy, which is why they are 17 per cent of the allowable maximum and rank me as 580th out of the 620 MPs entitled to claim the allowance.”When: May 12

Andrew George: “This story’s main allegation appears to be that I have a London flat that is sometimes visited by my daughter, who lives elsewhere in London.”When: May 13

Nick Clegg: “Do I think this was a train crash waiting to happen? Yes, clearly it was. What we are seeing now is the unravelling of a system that thrived in the shadows”When: May 13